Are you up-to-date on what the latest advice is on getting a COVID-19 vaccine or booster? If you’re not, you are not alone. Public awareness of a new booster is “modest,” according to the results of a non-profit organization’s survey called the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor, published September 30th. Their survey found that fully half of...
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“When am I going to feel better?” Long-haul COVID
Science is starting to validate what some COVID-19 survivors have experienced since their diagnosis: Long-haul COVID, also called long term COVID, is real. If you had COVID and still “don’t feel right,” you are not alone. “I’ve been asking my doctors ‘When am I going to feel better?’ since I left the hospital,” said Doug Cleminshaw, a...
Read MoreChronic Fatigue Syndrome and COVID-19
People living with myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) have had a difficult time finding physicians and others who believe that they have this debilitating condition. They’ve been told “it’s all in your head” or “physical activity will make you feel better.” They’ve gone to psychiatrists...
Read MoreThe effect of COVID-19 on the brain
Brain fog, hemorrhaging in the brain or in the space between the brain and skull (subarachnoid space), changes in cognition, personality and behavior: these are some of the alterations that patients who have had COVID-19 experience. One of the changes has been onset of psychosis in people who had never had any history of mental illness. A New York Times...
Read MoreCOVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trials: “Part of something bigger than myself”
Barry Nelson, Patient Advisor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Patients and Families participated in a webinar on January 11 organized by The Center for Health Education Research Service in Boston, Massachusetts. [1] During the webinar, Nelson described his experience as a cancer survivor. “I was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer...
Read MoreResilience and Hot Chocolate
“…WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 6 AM EST TUESDAY… * WHAT…Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 14 to 18 inches. Winds gusting as high as 45 mph. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS…Blizzard like conditions possible Monday and Monday evening.” ~Weather Underground Looking at the weather forecast...
Read MoreKeep Wearing Masks Even if Vaccinated: COVID-19 Vaccine
On January 19, in the online news website MedPage Today, two prominent scientists debated if people should be able to go without masks 14 days after they have received their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The January 24, Sunday New York Times just published, Why Vaccines Alone Won’t Stop the Pandemic . The January 19 debate was between Vinay Prasad,...
Read MoreGrief and COVID-19
As of November 29, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused almost 1.5 million deaths worldwide just from the disease itself. That number doesn’t take into account the deaths that have occurred because people have delayed care or avoided hospitals and physicians due to the pandemic. Because of social distancing, normal interactions – like being with...
Read MoreCOVID-19 and Endothelial Inflammation
In May, the Journal of Clinical Medicine published an article titled “Hypertension, Thrombosis, Kidney Failure, and Diabetes: Is COVID-19 an Endothelial Disease? A Comprehensive Evaluation of Clinical and Basic Evidence.” The authors put forward a hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 infects the lining of the body’s blood vessels. The lining...
Read MoreCOVID-19 Gets Personal
Last month, I mentioned in the Medivizor newsletter that I had lost a family member. This loved one feared seeking medical attention for a serious condition because of the risk of catching COVID-19 at a hospital or doctor’s office. Now, a dear friend’s parents received notification that they were exposed to the SARS-2 coronavirus by a...
Read MoreThe Unappreciated Sense of Smell
The homey aroma of fresh baked bread, the mouth-watering fragrance of chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven, the loamy scent of autumnal leaves raked into high piles: cells in our noses snatch chemicals in the air which fire neurons in a part of the brain called the olfactory bulb. From the bulb information zips to other areas of the brain. The...
Read MoreAvoiding Healthcare Due to COVID-19
In June the CDC asked almost 10,000 respondents in the US the question, “Have you delayed or avoided medical care due to concerns related to COVID-19?” The survey question found that 41 percent answered yes to this statement. Twelve percent avoided urgent or emergency care and another 32 percent stated they had avoided routine care. Some of...
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